Vison of Life...It speaks about my views towards what's happening around us, though many of the things represents Pune, a becoming Metro in Maharashtra,India yet most of us live in similar city life. In city day to day life all we face is problems around us; from traffic to water to slums to power supply & many more, but who has solutions? That's why the name
Vison of Life!
Sanjay Deshpande

Monday, October 30, 2017

“If we can teach people about wildlife, they will be touched.
Share my wildlife with me. Because humans want to save things that they
love.”... Steve Irwin.

Stephen Robert Irwin, nicknamed "The Crocodile
Hunter", was an Australian zookeeper, conservationist and television
personality; he is the man who made common people all around the world to love
wild life by his exceptionnal shows on Nat Geo channel & what an irony that
he met his death during shooting of one such show by Sting Ray fish! That's
dedicating life for wild life conservation in true sense & its people like
Steve whose death also has contributed to wild life conservation & that’s
exactly his above words about making common man aware regarding wild life is
what made me use his reference to start my sharing. Like some reality TV show
come October & that’s new season for wild life in India as the
parks reopens for tourism post monsoon & as I have already shared, forests
in Central India are probably at their best, fresh with monsoons effect!
Though I never need any reason to visit forests yet when the reason is doing my
little bit for ground staff at forests then visiting forests become more
beautiful as well meaningful. This time we provided 125 winters wear for Pench
MP forest guides as well gate staff & 175 such for Tadoba guides as well
gate staff. AT both ends the sweaters were handed over to the guides & gate
staff in a small cozy function with help of respective officers at both parks!

Seeing the joy on the faces of guide & after hearing praise
for my team for donating sweaters, speaking at both events I told to those men
who are actual savers of the tiger, that it’s not big thing to give & it’s
not donation but its sharing for us, & what I wanted to share is a feeling
that in the tough job of saving the forests you are not alone! This sweater is
like a memento which will tell you that your job is most important &
someone outside the forests who lives in comforts of city life understands as
well respect your job!Because
if it’s difficult to save a tiger then it’s more difficult to show a tiger in
the forest, as it’s the only intention with which most tourists visits forests
& to stand to their expectation of showing a tiger is very difficult job
which the forest guides has to do all year long, that’s the job of a guide in
forests! And as I always said on one side entire wild life tourism of States
like MP or Maharashtra or Karnataka is revolving around tiger sighting &
then when the tourists comes to the forest, spends handsome amount as well time
(this aspect will cover in detail) & if he or she don’t get to have a
glimpse of tiger then how you are going to make this tourist like the forests,
& then how you are going to support to conserve something which you haven’t
liked in first place?

Now coming to sighting (sighting is commonly used term for
sighting of a tiger), I did nearly eleven safaris; seven at Pench MP & four
at Tadoba, one safari is one round of forest which is in morning 6 am -10.30 am
& in afternoon 3 pm -6 pm & in all eleven safaris all I got to see was
a tiger cub crossing road, that’s all speaking about the sighting of tiger!
Imagine the time, effort & costing involved & one has to wake up at
4.30 in morning to be at entry gate for morning safari. I have seen enough
tigers by now & don’t visit forests just to see a tiger though the sight of
those yellow & black stripes is always a welcome thing. What I wanted to
put forward is harassment of the tourists (many my forest officer friends wont
like the word harassment) in the name of tiger conservation. I don’t know who
is at blame or fault or even my perception may be wrong but look at the hefty
charges forest dept is applying per safari as well the other costs incurred
such as gypsy charges & on the top of it getting a reservation for the
safari & the procedures for entry in the park, you feel even getting in
Pakistan is easier task! For e.g. take Pench praks entry seen, first you have
to get online booking which gets full at the moment the booking is open. Then
you need to be at the gate by 5 am even the gate opens at 6am because even you
have got online booking done the verification process takes nearly an hour, god
knows what the dept verifies when mostly all details can be done online itself!
And then its double check at the gate also as even you get the entry form in
print only after producing valid ID proof for each member of the safari yet
again there is second gate where all these ID’s are checked by another
official!

At Tadoba case is more stringent as every member in the gypsy
has to make her or his hands up as the guard calls out for the name. Also
system of allotting gypsy or guide is equally messy making drivers as well
guides wait at the gate from 4.30 am in morning. The worst part is even if the
online booking of a safari has been done on one name by paying full charges
& in one safari six people can go, then all six the names should be
confirmed only at the time of booking which is nearly three months in advance.
Now when its students group then how can we assure names so early & behold,
if you want to change the name or add some name at eleventh hour then you will
have to pay Rs 1000 per name in addition to all the charges you have paid for
safari! And then there are camera charges per camera as well guide charges on
top of it, making wild life tourism only for super riches. Reason given by
forest dept is tickets are black marketed by tour operators & sold at
higher rates but then what about all the genuine tourists as well school kids
trip organizers, why the majority has to suffer because of few wrong doers, is
the question I will ask to the authorities? As we all have witnessed a black
marketer finds ways even in this system as the one who is ready to pay premium
he won’t mind paying even Rs 1000, to add the name but in the process its
middle class which gets hit & deprived from seeing these forests is a
bitter fact. Then the entry rates have been increased nearly ten times in
last ten years, one reason is because of Hon Supreme Court’s order, tourism has
been restricted to only 20% of the forest area, causing curtailing of entry of
gypsy’s by 80% & to cover these loss rates of entry has been increased by
local authorities! Here I will ask, what is govt’s job, to make money or to
assure this nature’s treasure gets available for every common citizen of this
country? Same is with the charges applied for the safaris, why not all the
National Parks in the country has one single charging system so it will be easy
for the wild life tourists to plan their budgets as well trip. For e.g. take
full day safari charges which varies with every park & not that it’s been
doubled in just one year making forests accessible to only super riches of the
country because a full day safari will cost nearly Rs 75,000 per day, imagine
how many Indians can afford this amount! On this background, will like to share
some information about USA’s national parks; there four national park’s entry
permit costs just $80 which makes Rs 5600/- & this is for multiple entries
valid for one year! Agreed USA is a rich country but they earn money from other
avenues & not at the cost of depriving common citizen from nature
conservation. High time our MOEF i.e. Ministry of Environment & Forests
take cognizance of these facts & guide State Forest depts for doing
needful.

When all the labyrinth of entry formalities are complete & once you are in the park then the new sets of
rules awaits for you, with due respect to forest dept’s intentions as well I
too am a avid wild life lover yet lets understand, people come here to see wild
life (read tiger & leopard) & we need to make policies by virtue of
which the tourists will get to see what they want to see. As then only their
interest in wild life will increase which is the key to make them aware about
importance of wild life conservation.But the rules which welcomes us in
the forests makes different story, speed limit is 20km/ hour, who designed it
god knows! For instance you can’t get down the vehicle anywhere in the park
even for nature’s call this I can understand considering safety of tourists
from attack of wild animals. But there are no restrooms at all in many parks;
rather in Pench park there is just one rest room at Alikatta (center point).
When a tiger sighting is expected & if any tourist has to respond nature call
then it’s at the cost of missing the tiger sighting as the poor fellow has to
run back to a place where rest room is located! In my recent Tadoba trip
similar incidence happened with none other than a Hon High court judge who
missed tiger sighting because of nature call! I don’t say allow tourists to get
down at anywhere in the park but at least we have numbers of forest guards
residents all across the parks, why can’t we provide safe rest rooms to the
tourists so they can enjoy their ride with some comfort?

One more issue is regulations (restriction is proper word) on
the drivers as well guides. In Pench I came to know even on two way route you
can’t take a U turn unless it’s a tiraha or chowk (a place where three or four
roads meet). Means if a tiger or any photographic incident is happening behind
your gypsy then you can U turn even keeping safe distance from the animal in
sight but drive strait till you get a tiraha or chowk & then only turn
back, ridiculous isn’t it? And then the latest development is all guides have
been provided with GPS in their mobile to keep control on the speed of vehicle
as well you are not supposed to stop more than fifteen minutes at place where
tiger sighting is happening, is what few guides told me! And then ever changing
routes as well blocking of the routes where tiger is being sighted regularly is
one more popular game of forest dept or say park management. Also why we keep
park close in monsoons; take example of main road of Tadoba which is in very
good tarred condition, so let’s allow the tourists to use this road, which was
open till last monsoon, but is suddenly closed from this season. Imagine with
fear of getting fined as well getting banned in the minds of guides as well
drivers, how they can show tourists the beauty of the forest with free mind,
which is their main job!I am not in support of speeding of
vehicles in any way but then the gypsy drivers also knows their responsibility
while driving in park. Just look at the statistics in past & tell me a
single incidence of accident of any wild animal in park due to tourist vehicle
as every driver knows if such accident happens, that will be his last ride
& that he can’t afford! Then why burden driver’s mind with GPS type
gadgets, what are we running a park or a jail!All such things damages not just
tourism but entire life cycle of thousands of people who are solely depending
up on tourists as the gypsy drivers were practically on streets this monsoon
for earning their wages due to park closer. And this is just one example, as
with the reduction in numbers of safari permits as well high entry fees the
only tourists which comes for here more than two or three safaris are from rich
class & this has killed middle or lower budget hotels at all national park
destinations across the country. Only the high end hotels are doing well which
most people can’t afford. Rather we should try to keep open all our parks as
much we can is what my opinion is because if we are not keeping people in &
around forests comfortable by our tourism which is only way of earning for
them, then these people are the best baits for poachers!

What are we heading at, is the question comes to my mind after
experiencing above aspects of the national parks. As better here after we allow
people to see a tiger or any wild life creature in the zoo only instead making
visiting national parks so difficult that too after paying all possible
charges. Agreed that forest dept’s intentions towards wild life conservation
nobody doubts it’s the way which is a problem. We need to make every single
person of this country understands importance of forests & contributes his
or her best to conserve the wild life & for that we should make wild life
accessible to every citizen as then only they will understand what to conserve!
As I mentioned I had eleven safaris without single tiger sighting yet I love
forests & being in it but to reach this stage I have spent enough time
& money in forests & has eyeful of tiger sightings in past.And it’s this exposure with forests which has taught me that
being a wild lifer doesn’t mean just going to national parks, clicking snaps
& uploading on FB & get likes; it’s what you do to conserve forests is
what makes you a wild lifer. I penned down my thoughts as somewhere
someone in the system will think & act as that’s last hope for the common
wild lifer as well for wild life in itself of this country!

Sunday, October 15, 2017

“Every creature was designed to serve
a purpose. Learn from animals for they are there to teach you the way of life.
There is a wealth of knowledge that is openly accessible in nature. Our
ancestors knew this and embraced the natural cures found in the bosoms of the
earth. Their classroom was nature. They studied the lessons to be learned from
animals. Much of human behavior can be explained by watching the wild beasts
around us. They are constantly teaching us things about ourselves and the way
of the universe, but most people are too blind to watch and
listen.” … Suzy
Kassem.

Suzy Kassem is an American writer, poet, philosopher, and
multi-faceted artist of Egyptian origin. The granddaughter of a well-known sage
in 19th century Cairo, mysticism and wisdom run through her blood just as the
water of the Nile flows through her veins. And her words about wildlife,
shows her approach of learning from the nature, no wonder her words flow so
easily & tells us about importance of nature in the form of wildlife! Actually
come October & updates from my Facebook group’s like Sanctuary & Claw
makes me aware that parks in Indian forests are open now & it’s time to
visit wilds. Though one need not have to go all the time to national parks to
be with wild life as where I stay i.e. Pune has ample of biodiversity around in
the form of Western Ghats though no tiger sighting here as you get to see in
Central India! Yet when you want to be with nature for learning even you
terrace garden can teach you a lot is what I have observed. But again when
something is very near to you then you often miss to see that thing, is exactly
what happens with me when speaking about biodiversity around Pune. In my
cabin at office I have a digital photo frame on which all my wild life captures
keeps on rolling all day long, whenever I get tired of my concrete world I look
at this frame & it takes me in the wilds. And it’s not just tiger sighting
but some of the clicks brings back memories in wilds which made me learn not
just about animals but even made me think about human behavior, here are few
such…

1.In Tadoba
forest on a dusty noon as usual chasing for tiger & following alarm calls
of chital, we saw a huge spider feeding on a grasshopper even bigger than it.
My wild life friend Atul Dhamankar then showed us something unique, a small red
spider on the back of bigger spider. No, it wasn’t spider’s cub but it was male
spider which can met only when female spider is busy in feeding herself or else
she will eat the male spider only! Nature is strange as this taught me how in nature, every specie
finds its way out to survive!

2.Then in one such round at kanha forest, we saw a herd of chital approaching
water hole. It’s this time when the animals are most susceptible for getting
hunted as their back is towards forest & nostrils submerged in water, so
they can’t see the predators like tiger or leopard coming from rear. But nature
has taught them what we the humans haven’t learnt; the leader of the herd
watches the forest & the rest of the herd drinks & when they are
finished then the leader i.e. a male chital goes for drinking water! What a leadership
attitude & courage from a deer, as not that it can actually fight with
tiger but at least he will see such danger & make aware his herd to run
away, is what it must be thinking! This whole scene made me think about our
leaders who wants to fill their pockets first & cares a hang about their followers
empty stomach; well, we are real fools to accept such person as our leader in
first place, is equally true!

3.Best part in forest is when you stop at some place just to
listen the forest sounds, mainly to check any alarm call for tiger & at
such times the forest guide or gypsy driver which are mostly natives from
surrounding of the forest, share their stories about forest & their
encounters with many funny situations in forest as well their beliefs or say
superstitions which are very common among the tribes around the forest. One
such is sloth bear tickles the man if it caught any in the forest & then
rip of its face so that the man won’t be able to identify the sloth bear! Very
funny indeed not for the persons who has lost their eyes & damaged their
face for ever due to slot bear attacks & which makes sloth bear most feared
animal in the wilds. Fact is sloth bear has very sharp & long nails to dig
in termite houses & eat termites; as well it has very poor eye sight
but a strong sense of smell. So when accidently it meets any man in the forest
(which mostly are forest labors), when a sloth bear stands on its hinder
legs the it stood taller than average
human height & if it just swings its paw as act of defense which exactly
hits at the face of unfortunate person standing right in-front of the sloth
bear. And just one swing at your face is enough to tear all the flesh from your
face as human skin is too soft for those sharp nails which can dig in termite
home!

4.The comes one more story how the tiger hunt the monkeys which
are expert on climbing up high on trees & tiger due to its heavy structure
cant climb on the tree like the leopards does. Monkeys as we all know are
curious lot & that does make them land in danger often. Whenever a
group of monkeys sees a tiger they starts shouting in a very different
sound, it’s more like scratching than their normal hoop hoop! At the same time
they start looking down & their eyes follow all the time the tiger &
its movement. The tiger knows this & starts circling the tree on which the
group of monkeys is looking down & instead leaving that area, which monkeys
can easily do from the top of the trees, the monkeys also starts rolling their
eyes & neck to cover the tiger movements around the tree & one of the
monkey faints due this movement of eyes & falls down & then becomes
food for the alert tiger below! Though no one has actually seen this happening but tiger’s
strategy does make sense & that teaches us even if we are unable to master
some skill, like the tiger doesn’t know to climb on the tree yet he can achieve
the kill of a monkey which sits high up!

5. The on
one such ride in Bandhawagad forest our guide took us at a lake & told us
to watch around. It was quite noon in forest & clear blue sky &
suddenly a flock of bats came & started hovering above the water-body. One
by one the bats started diving towards the surface of water body, first I
thought they are hunting fish which was new to me but the guide asked, “sir
aapne kabhi socha hai bat pani kaise pita hai?” i.e. how a bat must be drinking
water? I accepted I have never thought & then it hit me, how difficult it
must be for a bird to drink water which can’t even stand on its leg! So the
bats were not hunting fish but they were drinking water in flying mode as
that’s the only way they can drink water! So many times we see some phenomenon
in nature around us & don’t just bother about it! From my childhood I
am fascinated by bats, which were a normal sight after sun down in the sky. But
now the poor specie is getting driven away from the towns & cities as even
after sun down we have flood lights & honking of millions of vehicles that
keeps the bats at bay as well pollution & in addition our passion for fire
crackers, all this is helping to make bats extinct & then we hardly have
clean water bodies left in the city where the bats can drink from, while its flying!
But then who cares if some night flying mammal bird if we don’t get to see, as
who has time to look at its flight from whatsap, FB & thousands of channel
on TV while its dark outside!

6. One such
interesting specie, with loads of myths around is wild dogs, called as
Whistling Hunters also, because of their unique way of communication. Many won’t
know but wild dogs which live by packs (wild hunters like dogs, jackals in
group are called as pack whether as deer in group is called as herd) are most
feared animal in the Indian forests, even tiger keeps distance from them, such
is respect for their hunting skills! And the wild dogs don’t bark but they
communicate with each other by soft whistle, a very rare way for dogs as they
are very less studied specie till recent. Wild dogs are a classic example of
“size doesn’t matter but performance does”. As they take on much bigger prey
like Sambhar deer just by persistent chasing it & don’t give up till the
prey fall down with sheer exhaustion & then eat it alive as they can’t kill
the prey in one go like tiger or leopard does! I have been lucky to witness a
wild dog’s chase by myself in pench forest. A poor chital was running from pack
of wild dogs & jumped in a lake for survival. The wild dog’s pack literally
circled the lake & blocked chital’s way of coming out of water. Poor chital
gave up swimming after one hour of effort & then the dogs entered water
& killed the chital. They were with all the patience & confident that
the chital will give up! This is what we
should learn from wild dogs; never give up attitude till you achieve what you
are after! But this wonderful specie is under threat of getting extinct as
because of their size’s limitation & the way they hunt, they need lot of
forest to survive & that is something we are fast encroaching on. Loss of
habitats is main cause of many animals getting extinct & each of us should
do our best to keep wild animal’s homes intact!

Forest is
full of such stories & like one famous paint companies tag line, “har ghar
kuch kahata hai” (every home has a story to tell), on the same line we can say,
“Each specie has some story to tell” in the forest. Not just that but every day
brings more such stories in forest that is why a forest is ever alive! It’s not
just tiger sightings but such stories of which you also can be a witness, is
what makes forests interesting & our life too! But for that we should not
forget our responsibility along as every day we read some or other specie has
vanished forever. On the occasion of Wild Life Week which is celebrated in
October, I came across an article in a news paper with a heading, “Have you
seen them?” It was featuring animals which were common sight few decades back around
towns but now they are not being seen even in reserved forests & the sole
reason is loss of their habitat due to our greed for building more of our
homes, offices, roads, factories, malls & IT parks!

Friends, as we work for
making our comfortable homes, we must work for other specie’s homes (read
forests) also, or else one day all we will be left with is just stories of wild
dogs & sloth bears, whereas the heroes of such stories will be long gone
forever from this planet! And just by
celebrating some Wild Life Week & giving advertises in new paper we won’t
be able to save forests as well wild dogs like species but we need to
understand what we are going to miss, if every single wild species gets
extinct; as well we need to control our needs which are actually greed! Instead planning our
so called Smart Cities lets first plan for Smart Forests & then plan our
cities around them, that’s the only hope for wild life & as we consider
ourselves Smartest Specie, we are solely responsible to make wild life survive!

Friday, October 6, 2017

It’s Diwali time again & really we
Indian’s are festival loving people, that makes us forget all bad things
happening around us & we are blessed with so many festivals for that! But amongst all Diwali is something great as I remember my childhood, Diwali was
the only time when we used to get two sets of new clothes & get to eat
sweets for strait four days! Today’s genre won’t ever imagine what joy such
treats meant for us as now with online shopping sites & apps like Siwggie
delivering all sorts of food at your door step, joy of all such things has long
gone. Yet Diwali has its special place in our life because, one is it brings
along vacations & second as Diwali is celebrated across all classes of the masses,
entire mood of society becomes festive making it truly nation’s festival &
not of some caste or religion! The term Diwali has been so synonymously connected
with prosperity that whenever someone is seen spending heavily then people asks,
“is it Diwali time for you!”

Well, just do mind, all are not lucky to
have happy Diwali times as for millions of people in this country even Diwali
cant make them able to have prosperity, so all I will say lets understand the
Diwali first & then decide how you will be celebrating it! As a leader of
my team ( I never like to call myself owner) I felt like writing my views to my
them & I am sharing with you as my Diwali wishes, please do go through
& share with your close ones…

Happy and Green Diwali 2017!

“However good we may think we are, yet we can definitely
be a better person”… Disney Movie, “Moena”.

My dear team Sanjeevani and friends, wish
you all a very happy Diwali! You all are aware of my fascination for cartoons
and to be honest, its cartoons, super heroes and the ideology behind them which
has a great influence on my journey so far. I have used a quote from famous
Disney movie Moena to share my thoughts on the occasion of Diwali, as I feel
this is the gist of what I want to share with you all. And any ways what else do
we do when we wish someone a better life? We wish each other prosperity, and
those who count prosperity in terms of money haven’t understood real meaning or
let’s say joy of living itself! Recently in a casual conversation my younger
son once told me that he wants to earn so much that he could do anything he
wants to. I smiled and asked him, what exactly do you want to earn my son? He
replied, of course lots of money! I was not surprised with his reply, as it’s a
way of life that from childhood till we become grownups, it’s imbibed on us
that to earn is something related to only with money. That’s what every school
& college teaches us, get education to earn more money & in the process
we lose real meaning of living our life!

Friends, money is definitely important
aspect of life as so many things for e.g. to have good education to health care,
we need money for most of the things around is a fact. Ask a small kid who does
not even get food, leave some decent cloths to wear on Diwali but needs to
stand at signal in front of a mall as a beggar and who sees people carrying
bags full of shopping, for him money is the only medium to celebrate Diwali and
be happy. But what about children or even grownups who don’t have to stand at
traffic signal to earn their living, how could they too relate happiness to
money? I asked this is to my son and I am also sharing my views with you all,
that if you want to earn anything then earn knowledge, earn goodness, earn
people & even you can earn good health; as, if you earn all these things
money will surely follow. But if you earn only money then there is no guarantee
the things mentioned above will follow, in fact you may lose many of them forever.
Take example of our industry i.e. real estate, what we are witnessing has
happened to those who entered in this business merely with the purpose of
earning money? But we survived in toughest times, as our aim was not only to
earn money but also build good homes. In this difficult situation people with
whom we had developed a strong bond supported us; its outcome of our positive
thinking and good deeds & commitment towards our work, that’s our real
earning!

I always feel if you want to know what is good, you first
have to experience what is bad. Once you realize this truth, then nothing
remains bad around us. In-fact then the bad times becomes an investment to
achieve good times. Finally it depends on us only whether we
learn from a difficult condition and try to achieve a good one or keep a status-quo. As
Moena says this journey on the path of goodness has no end. How much good can
one be; the answer is, it like the sky, which is infinite in all dimensions
& surrounds everything, same way your goodness will surround everyone
around you! Remember one thing, goodness is the most
valuable gift you could ever give, not only to everyone around you but also to
yourself. Take example of “Swachha Bharat Abhiyan”, if everyone decides that he or
she will not litter and will not allow anyone to litter, do we need any one
else to collect garbage? Similarly if everyone decides to behave in a
good way, there will be no badness left in this world and many problems world
is facing will be solved automatically.

So from this Diwali let’s resolve to be a
better human being than what you are, it will be the best Diwali gift you would
give to yourself. I am too not an exception, because if I consider myself your
boss as I am better than you then it also makes me most bad person too, amongst
us & so I would start working on myself to get rid of that badness within! Also
remember goodness is a responsibility, as if you want to fight badness there is
no better weapon than goodness. And do mind don’t use your goodness only for
your own benefit, also share it with those who are as lucky as you, will you
please try it? You could achieve this through simple way, like I mentioned
above, this Diwali, think of that small kid standing begging at signal with
dirty tattered clothes & looking at you through the glass facade while you
were busy in shopping for yourself & your loved ones, just when you buy a
shirt for yourself from mall, at least buy a chocolate for that boy. Try this
please & then you will realize how your celebrating Diwali this way can
make lives of many others really wonderful, beyond your imagination!

Lastly I would like to quote a beautiful sentence I read
recently, “if you want to burn, don’t burn as one of many torches illuminating some
palace, but burn as a tiny candle which drives away darkness from a small
hutment which has no light, even your burning will be meaningful’’, & we here
we are talking about living life!

With this note, I wish you and your family
a very happy and enlightening Diwali!